Penguins News

Penguins to Make Five Selections in the 2016 NHL Draft this Weekend

The Pittsburgh Penguins have five picks in the 2016 NHL Draft to be held this Friday and Saturday, June 24-25, at the First Niagara Center in Buffalo.

Round 1 is Friday night, beginning at 7 p.m. on NBC Sports Network. The remainder of the draft will be held on Saturday, beginning at 10 a.m. on the NHL Network.

Pittsburgh’s first pick will be the 55th overall selection in the second round. That choice was acquired from the Vancouver Canucks last summer in the deal that also brought Nick Bonino to Pittsburgh. The choice originally belonged to Anaheim.

The Penguins also have their own second-round selection (61st overall).

Pittsburgh traded its first-round pick (30th overall) and a previously-acquired third-round pick (72nd overall) to Toronto last July 1 in the Phil Kessel trade. The Penguins also traded their own third-round pick (91st overall) to Edmonton at the trading deadline for Justin Schultz. Pittsburgh sent its seventh-round pick (211th overall) to St. Louis on March 2, 2015 in exchange for Ian Cole.

Pittsburgh’s second-round pick (61st overall) was actually traded to Toronto for Daniel Winnik on Feb. 25, 2015, but then later re-acquired in the Kessel deal.

The Penguins also owned the 64th overall selection in the third round for a couple of weeks, but that pick ended up back with the Canucks in the Bonino trade.

The 64th and 72nd picks were compensatory picks the Penguins had received in exchange for Buffalo and New Jersey hiring Dan Bylsma and John Hynes, respectively, as head coach.

Last year the Penguins had four draft choices, and two of them, Daniel Sprong (second round) and Dominik Simon (fifth round), saw NHL action. They were two of just eight players drafted last year that logged NHL action.

During the 2016 Stanley Cup playoffs, the Penguins used 22 skaters and three goaltenders. Eleven of those players were originally drafted by Pittsburgh:

Below are the players from the Penguins’ 2016 Stanley Cup championship playoff roster drafted by Pittsburgh: